Republicans are latching onto this one White House comment to highlight 'the big lie' of the Iran deal

Republicans skeptical of
the Iran nuclear deal are widely pointing to what they call a
contradiction from Ben Rhodes, a White House deputy national
security adviser, to make their case that the agreement is
flawed.

On Tuesday, Rhodes discussed the deal's terms for the inspections
of Iranian facilities related to the country's nuclear program.

"We never sought in this negotiation the capacity for so-called
'anytime, anywhere,' where you could basically go anywhere in the
country," Rhodes
said in a CNN interview on Tuesday.

Under the final deal, the inspection rules differ between
specifically nuclear facilities, such as uranium-enrichment
sites, and other sensitive facilities that are not primarily
nuclear in purpose, such as military installations.

According to CBS, "a total of 24 days could elapse between
the time inspectors first request access to a suspicious site and
the time they are allowed entry."

Iran agreed to this and various other limits on its program in
exchange for the rollback of economic sanctions.

The problem is that Rhodes previously used the phrase "anytime,
anywhere" multiple times to describe the White House's
negotiating objectives with Iran. Mediaite
flagged two such instances on Wednesday.

"Under this deal, you will have anywhere, anytime 24/7 access as
it relates to the nuclear facilities that Iran has," Rhodes said
in an April CNN interview, for example, according
to the TV network's transcript.

"Here's what's so bad about the deal," Hannity said. "'Anytime,
anywhere' — apparently they have to give 24 days' notice.
Wouldn't that allow the Iranians enough time to adapt and hide
whatever they're really doing at these facilities?"

At a Wednesday news conference, Gov. Chris Christie of New
Jersey, a Republican presidential candidate, attributed the
"anytime, anywhere" claim to President Barack Obama and then
compared it with a widely ridiculed Obama assertion about the
Affordable Care Act: "If you like your healthcare plan, you can
keep it." PolitiFact rated that statement
its 2013 "Lie of the Year."

"That sounds pretty much like, 'If you like your doctor, you can
keep him," Christie said. "And if you like your health insurance
plan, you can keep it. That was the big lie of the first term.
The big lie of the second term was 'anytime, anywhere.'"

For his part, Rhodes insisted on Twitter that there was no
contradiction. He suggested he was previously addressing "key
nuclear facilities" instead of all facilities of interest:

With respect to key nuclear facilities there WILL be 24/7 access / continuous monitoring. Exactly what we said after Lausanne